Starbucks Cup Controversy & The Hidden Meaning Of The Starbucks Logo

Starbucks’ decision to
stay “holiday neutral” on their cups this year has been a point of
contention and a heated conversation over the past few days, agitating
many to believe that this decision marked an intentional “war on
Christmas” (see: Red Cup Controversy).

According to Jeffrey Fields, VP of
Starbucks, the concept was for the holiday cups to be a blank canvas,
allowing customers to create their own stories, “inspired by the doodles
and designs that customers have drawn on white cups for years.” “In the
past, we have told stories
with our holiday cups designs,” Jeffrey explained. “This year we wanted
to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of
our stories.”

Yet the whole “red cup” controversy starts to look pretty silly when you take into account that Starbucks’ logo (which emblazons every cup) has been actually highly esoteric in nature from the beginning.

While The Little Mermaid portrays
Ariel as a quirky, curious beauty with hopes of exploring the world,
according to Greek mythology, mermaids, or sirens, were predatory
seductresses that would seduce sailors with songs and promises of sex
— and then kill them.

The original Starbucks logo had a twin-tailed mermaid, known as Melusine. According to Wikipedia the tale of Melusine is as follows:

The tale was translated into German in 1456 by Thüring von Ringoltingen, the version of which became popular as a chapbook. It was later translated into English c. 1500, and often printed in both the 15th century and the 16th century. A prose version is entitled the Chronique de la princesse (Chronicle of the Princess).It tells how in the time of the Crusades, Elynas, the King of Albany (an old name for Scotland or Alba),
went hunting one day and came across a beautiful lady in the forest.
She was Pressyne, mother of Melusine. He persuaded her to marry him but
she agreed, only on the promise — for there is often a hard and fatal
condition attached to any pairing of fay and mortal — that he must not enter her chamber when she birthed or bathed her children. She gave birth
to triplets. When he violated this taboo, Pressyne left the kingdom,
together with her three daughters, and traveled to the lost Isle of Avalon.The three girls — Melusine, Melior, and Palatyne — grew up in Avalon.
On their fifteenth birthday, Melusine, the eldest, asked why they had
been taken to Avalon. Upon hearing of their father’s broken promise,
Melusine sought revenge. She and her sisters captured Elynas and locked
him, with his riches, in a mountain. Pressyne became enraged when she
learned what the girls had done, and punished them for their disrespect
to their father. Melusine was condemned to take the form of a serpent
from the waist down every Saturday. In other stories, she takes on the
form of a mermaid.Raymond of Poitou came across Melusine in a forest of Coulombiers in Poitou in France,
and proposed marriage. Just as her mother had done, she laid a
condition: that he must never enter her chamber on a Saturday. He broke
the promise and saw her in the form of a part-woman, part-serpent, but
she forgave him. When, during a disagreement, he called her a “serpent”
in front of his court, she assumed the form of a dragon, provided him with two magic rings, and flew off, never to return.[1]

Beyond the tale of Melusine and the mythological mystery of the mermaid, the other gods of the sea are amongst the most powerful in history, as water represents the power of creation which can both give, and destroy life.

For
example, the Christian iconography of the fish symbol is associated with
Jesus — and although it is believed to be in relation to his statement to “Peter and Andrew that if they followed him, He would make them fishers of men” — this mythology, too, dates back even before the Bible, and is actually relating to the Dagon god (or “fish god”) of the Philisitines.

‘Dagon is the diminutive of dag, and signifies ‘little
fish;’ not so much, however, in reference to size, as to the affection
entertained for it; so that some would render it, ‘dear little fish.’
The Babylonians believed that a being, part man and part fish, emerged
from the Erythraean Sea, and appeared in Babylonia in the early days of
its history,
and taught the people various arts necessary for their well-being.
Representations of this fish-god have been found among the sculptures of
Nineveh. The Philistine Dagon was of a similar character.’9

Whatever holiday you choose to
celebrate, it is important to see beyond the symbols and the mainstream
narrative which suits our cultural conditioning in order to find the
root of what is (or was). Holidays are their own mythology (see: The Psychedelic Origin of Christmas),
and history can be like the game of telephone at times, as stories get
altered to suit the needs of those in control of what is written.

What you choose to believe is personal to you,
and a cup shouldn’t dictate or deter your celebration. Whether the cup
is red, purple, green, or decorated in Christmas design, the spirit of
the holidays is within you, nobody else, and
regardless, year round, the mermaid still will be on the Starbucks cup –
luring people to pay $5.00 for a cup of coffee with her siren songs.